Chapter Two Sammie I woke up, gasping wildly for air. Was that.. real? It felt so real, so familiar. And the ears and tail were STILL there. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I batted at my not-quite dog ears furiously until it felt like my arms were about to fall off. I was scared, and irritated, and tired. Finally, I gained the courage to get up and walk to my sister’s room. I grabbed the doorknob and creaked the door open, making sure to stay quiet so Mom didn’t hear me. I turned on the light and looked around. No sign of her. What was happening? Suddenly, I heard noises coming from downstairs. I froze in fear. Whatever was happening, it didn’t sound good. I slowly tiptoed down the hall and peeked over the railing. There was my sister, dressed in a fox mask and a black yarn tail, walking out of the house on all fours. “Lacey?” She froze in fear, slowly standing up and looking up at me. “Erm- Sammie! What are you doing awake so late? Um- um- go back to sleep! Please? You never saw this!” She should have known that I wasn’t going to give up that easily. “What are you doing?” I called to her. She sighed, knowing that she had to tell me the truth.”Fine. Come downstairs and I’ll tell you.” I walked down the stairs, barely resisting the urge to go on all fours. “So?” I asked curiously. She took in a long breath. “On nights like this, when it’s a full moon.. I go out to the park in this outfit.. and I run around on all fours. And I’m sorry if you think that’s weird or unnatural or it makes you uncomfortable, but it’s just-“ “Can I join you?” She looked surprised and shocked for a second, but then she sighed in relief. “Of course. Come on.” We walked outside and I was immediately hit with a rush of cool air. Something about the nighttime seemed more natural, more beautiful than anything else. Eventually, we arrived at the park. “Do you want me to teach you how to run on all fours?” She asked, getting down on her hands and feet. I got down and tried to mimic the position she was at as we started to run. It was really hard at first, my hands slipping and my balance wavering. Soon enough, I (kinda) started to get the hang of it. “This is kind of fun!” I said, trying to bound as fast as she was. “I know, right?” I got tired and collapsed on the ground. She did the same as I did. “So, why are you doing this anyway?” I asked. “Right.” She sighed, a little nervously. “Have you ever heard of a therian?” “No.” “Well, that makes things a lot harder to explain.” She chuckled. “A therian is someone who has animal instincts, basically. They have urges to run around on all fours and hunt… things like that. They believe that their spirit is an animal. Sometimes they run around on all fours to feel more like an animal, and that’s called quadrobics. They also make masks and tails to feel connected to their animal.” I stopped a bit to think about this. Animal instincts.. kind of sounded like me. “So do therians feel ears on top of their heads when they’re not actually there?” “Yeah.” “And tails?” “Yeah.” “And do they have dreams about being animals?” “They do.” “And do they sometimes bark at annoying people by accident?” “Yes.” “So do you think I might be a therian?” I asked her. She stopped for a second, looking at me, and putting all the pieces together. How I used to pretend to be a dog when I was younger… how I always barked when I was scared… how I always used to howl and whimper when I had bad dreams. “I think you might actually be a therian. You should do more research on us first, though.” Lacey said, a slight smile on her face. “Wanna do more-“ I paused to remember the word- “quad-ro-bics?” “Of course!” We spent the rest of the night socializing and doing quads, two sisters, two wolves.
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